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March Madness 2014: The agony and ecstasy of early NCAA tournament upsets

Trey McDonald

Ohio State's Trey McDonald (55) wipes his brow during the first half of a second-round game against Dayton in the NCAA college basketball tournament in Buffalo, N.Y., Thursday, March 20, 2014. Dayton won, 60-59. (AP Photo/Bill Wippert)

With four overtime games on Thursday night -- an NCAA tournament record for a single day -- this year's matchups have already proven to be extremely competitive. It seems like the Selection Committee got things right, SMU snub or not.

And then there are the upsets: Dayton over Ohio State? Harvard over Cincinnati? North Dakota State over Oklahoma? Quick, name me one player to ever play for North Dakota State ... exactly. (Nice try, but Phil Jackson played at the University of North Dakota.) Plus, Manhattan almost took out reigning champ Louisville.

Of course, not everyone is happy about the upsets. That's especially true in Ohio, where the Buckeyes of Ohio State return after being bounced from the tournament by in-state foe Dayton. Ultimately, OSU coach Thad Matta simply failed to motivate his players, writes Cleveland.com's Doug Lesmerises:

They were a defense-first, defense-must team without a defensive attitude, a team forced to rely on the nitty gritty that sometimes didn't want to get dirty.

On the other end, we've got the upsetters. Imagine the exaltation that these lower-ranked teams, like North Dakota State, must feel. With their win over Oklahoma, the Bisons ought to take a moment and just enjoy the now, writes ESPN.com's Chantel Jennings:

The Bison are happy to be here, and there's no reason to act like that's a bad thing. They enjoy playing basketball and playing together, and anyone who watched Thursday night's matchup saw that.

It's refreshing to see a team that makes basketball look like it's the best thing it has ever done, not like it's a 9-to-5 job that it's been forced into. It's refreshing to see a coach win a game and want to hug anyone within arm's reach. North Dakota State is refreshing and is one of the reasons March Madness is so enjoyable.

In contrast to the upsets, several top-tier teams showed off what makes them so dangerous, handily beating their lesser opponents. Among those teams was a Syracuse team that wanted to establish itself as a national championship contender again, SU player Jerami Grant tells Syracuse.com's Bud Poliquin:

"We decided to come out and make a statement," Grant declared, "and I think we did."

Here was the statement: Syracuse 77, Western Michigan 53. And as SU led by 20 points in the first half and by 28 in the second -- and as the Orange greeted the final horn with some third-stringers, earnest and dusted off, on the floor -- that statement might just as well have been accompanied by trumpets.

As much havoc as the early round upsets wreak on everybody's brackets, they're what make March Madness the greatest quasi-holiday this country has. They're the reason we skip work, blow off class and hit refresh on our browsers so often our fingers go numb. (Who were you were kidding? You had no shot at Warren Buffett's $1 billion.)